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Patriots Point Celebrates USS Yorktown’s 75th Anniversary

Molly Hamilton Apr 18, 2018

It took former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt two tries to break the champagne bottle against the hull of the USS Yorktown CV-10 when she christened the ship she sponsored in 1943, it took her granddaughter three tries to do the same on the 75^th anniversary of the ship’s commissioning.  Hundreds gathered aboard “The Fighting Lady” on 15 April 2018 to celebrate this “diamond” anniversary.  This crowd included two original ship crewmembers (plankowners) and about a dozen veterans who served the ship over her three decades of naval service.

The ceremony began with a medley of patriotic music performed by the 246^th Army Band of the South Carolina Army National Guard.  After a welcome and invocation, USS Yorktown Association Chairman Ron Meachum shared a history of the USS Yorktown, highlighting all of the accomplishments of her lengthy service.

The USS Yorktown was the tenth aircraft carrier to serve the United States Navy.  She participated in the Pacific theater during World War II from 1943-1945 and earned the Presidential Unit Citation and 11 battle stars for her service during that conflict.  In the 1950s, the Yorktown was modernized to operate jet aircraft as an attack aircraft carrier (CVA-10). In 1957, she was re-designated an anti-submarine aircraft carrier (CVS-10), and would later earn five battle stars for service off Vietnam (1965-68). Known as “The Fighting Lady,” the ship also recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts and capsule in December 1968.

The USS Yorktown continued her service until she was decommissioned in 1970.  Five years later, in June 1975 she was towed from Bayonne, NJ to become the centerpiece of what would become Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum when it opened in January 1976.

The featured speaker for the event was Nancy Roosevelt Ireland, whose grandmother former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was the sponsor of the USS Yorktown CV-10 (and the CV-5 with the same name).  As part of the 75^th anniversary ceremony, Mrs. Ireland “re-christened” the ship as her grandmother had done in the year the Yorktown was commissioned.

After Mrs. Ireland broke the bottle and officially “re-christened” the ship the USS Yorktown, the Yorktown veterans rose to lay a wreath in memory of all those who have died in or after serving the great ship while the band played “Taps.”

At the end of the ceremony, the veterans and Mrs. Ireland participated in a “Meet & Greet” with the hundreds of visitors who came to the ceremony.  The veterans signed a commemorative 75th anniversary poster for guests.

Check out the gallery of photos below: